IIT Kharagpur Withdraws Hostel Dining Segregation Notice, Says No Division Over Food Choices

Kolkata: Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has withdrawn a notice that made segregation in seating arrangements in the dining hall of different hostels based on vegetarian and non-vegetarian food habits and choices, an official said.

Hinting that the notice about the segregation of such seating arrangements at B R Ambedkar Hall had been issued without the knowledge of higher authorities, the institute director, Suman Chakraborty, told PTI on Friday, "The moment he came to know about the decision, it was scrapped following immediate consultation with others in the higher authority of the institute." "There should not be any such signage to segregate students assembled at the dining hall based on their culinary choice. We have ordered that such signage be removed in whichever dining hall it remains with immediate effect," he said.

Chakraborty further said an academic institution should not impose such an order of segregation based on the food preferences of an individual.

On August 16, boarders of the B R Ambedkar Hall of Residence were asked in a notice to take seats based on separately earmarked places for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.

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This triggered a flutter among boarders who criticised the move, and as the news spread, the alumni came in support of boarders who criticised such segregation on the ground that it promoted division.

On September 8, the institute, in a fresh notice to all hall wardens, directed that any segregation of mess food in terms of vegetarian, non-vegetarian, Jain, and other categories should be done only at the levels of preparation and distribution.

"There must not be any such segregation for seating in the dining hall," the notice said.

The August 16 move to put up signage at tables at Ambedkar Hall followed complaints by a section of vegetarian boarders that those eating non-vegetarian food at the same spot were causing inconvenience for them by having cooked chicken, fish, mutton, and urged segregating vegetarian and non-vegetarians at the dining hall.

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The notice, issued in the wake of the developments at Ambedkar Hall, will be enforced in other hostel dining halls with immediate effect in case such segregation practices were in vogue there.

On principle, there cannot and should not be such segregation anywhere, the director said.

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